Romania, Bucharest, protesters interrupt homosexual movie

A screening of film, tackling the homosexuality “120 BMP/Beats per Minutes”, scheduled yesterday at the Romanian Peasant Museum (MTR), has been cut off by anti-LGBT protests carrying Orthodox icons. Several people came at the museum, bearing icons, flags and anti-LGBT placards, while chanting hymns “Romania isn’t Sodom” and “Hey Soros, leave them kids alone.” referring to Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros.

The film, set in Paris in the 1990s, explores homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic. It won the Grand Prize from the jury at Cannes in 2017.
The protesters said they objected to the film being shown at the museum because “the Romanian peasant is a Christian Orthodox.”

A Romanian director Tudor Giurgiu, who was in the audience, posted a video on Facebook. Gay rights group MozaiQ on Monday issued a statement, condemning the extreme gestures of some ultra-Orthodox and conservative groups … “who propagate hate against the LGBT community,” and called on Romanian politicians to “send a more decisive signal to society that discrimination is not acceptable.

“I never thought this would happen to me… We listened to religious songs and I still feel it is surreal that this can happen today in Romania,” he wrote.
“I suggest that from now on, cinemas screening ‘gay movies’ have protective suits, helmets, shields and so on,” he added.

Members of the LGBT community told BIRN that incidents like Sunday’s protest are intimidating because the authorities take no action afterwards, effectively encouraging others.